When Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Matthew Mann’s Coast Guard rescue boat approached a dog struggling to stay afloat in Honolulu Harbor, he said the crew knew immediately that the dog wasn’t just lost or scared — it was blind.

They were getting ready to take lunch Saturday when a call came in from the command center at Sector Honolulu, a report that a tugboat crew had spotted the dog swimming around in the middle of the harbor.

“He wouldn’t really look at us and his eyes were really bloodshot, so we just kind of guessed it,” Mann said of the crew’s realization that the dog was blind, which came after they pulled the canine aboard their 26-foot response boat.

The crew took the dog back to Coast Guard Station Honolulu, sent out a news release and waited as local newspapers and broadcast stations picked up the story.

“The Coast Guard hopes we can reunite this dog with his family as soon as possible,” Lt. Kevin Cooper, command duty officer at Sector Honolulu, said in the release. “We understand that it’s tough for everyone when a dog goes missing, so we’re asking for the public’s help to get him home.”

Sure enough, a man showed up the next day to claim his dog, Blue.

“The owner confirmed it the next day, that it was [blind], which also made sense because he was pretty much doing circles out in the middle of the harbor,” Mann said.

The Coast Guard said the dog’s owner works at a fish research facility next to the Coast Guard station at Sand Island. He wasn’t sure how the dog ended up in the harbor, the service said, but he was thankful to get him back.